**Chapter 1** of your original *Star War* saga, blending cosmic stakes, rogue heroes, and a touch of mysticism. I'll lean into the "Starbinders vs. black hole cult" idea for uniqueness. Let's dive in:
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### **CHAPTER 1: THE SHARD IN THE DARK**
**Outer Rim Territories | The *Iron Cypher* Freighter**
The alarms screamed like a dying star.
Kael Veythos slammed his palm against the ship's flickering nav-computer, cursing as the *Iron Cypher* shuddered beneath him. Behind his pilot's chair, the cargo hold rattled with the sound of loose hyperfuel canisters. *This is what you get for trusting a Harkonian smuggler*, he thought. The job had been simple: ferry a shipment of "borrowed" antimatter coils to the frost-planet Lyraxis. But now, half the galaxy's bounty hunters seemed to be on his tail—and the coils were *definitely* not just coils.
"Strap in, Z-9!" Kael barked at the dented utility droid clinging to the copilot's station. The droid's photoreceptor flickered blue with panic as it magnetized itself to the floor.
Outside the viewport, the obsidian expanse of the **Nexus Veil** stretched endlessly—a starless void where sensors went blind and engines choked on spatial static. Only fools and fugitives dared navigate it. Kael, unfortunately, was both.
A blast rocked the ship. The proximity alert blared: **UNKNOWN VESSEL, 200 KILOMETERS AND CLOSING.**
"Unknown my *aft*," Kael muttered, squinting at the scanner. The ship behind him was a jagged silhouette, its hull bristling with scavenged ion cannons. Pirates. Or worse—*cultists*. Whispers had rippled through the outer rim for months: fanatics in black robes, preaching about "the Unmaking," sacrificing entire colonies to something they called the **Void Maw**.
Another impact. The *Cypher*'s stabilizers whined.
"Z-9, eject cargo bay three! Now!" The droid chirped in protest. "*Eject it*, or we're stardust!"
A metallic groan echoed through the ship as the bay doors blew open. Kael watched on the rear cam as the antimatter coils tumbled into the void… along with something else. A glint of silver, no bigger than his fist, spun amid the debris.
*What in the seven hells—?*
Before he could react, the object flared. Light erupted—not the cold blue of an engine burn, but a deep, pulsating **gold**, like a miniature sun. The pirate ship veered wildly, its weapons freezing mid-fire. Then, with a soundless implosion, it crumpled inward, vanishing into a pinprick of darkness.
The *Cypher* fell silent.
Kael stared. "Did you… see that?"
Z-9 trilled nervously.
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**Twenty minutes later**, Kael floated in the cargo bay, the mysterious object glowing in his gloved hand. It was a **shard**—smooth, impossibly heavy, etched with symbols that made his head ache. Ancient symbols. *Starbinder* symbols.
He'd heard the stories, of course. The Starbinders were myth, a monastic order said to have harnessed the primal energy of creation itself. "Starforgers," the old spacers called them. But they'd vanished millennia ago, leaving only ruins and riddles.
A voice crackled over the comms—a voice like ground glass. **"You have something that belongs to the Void Maw, little thief."**
Kael froze. On the screen, a hooded figure stared back, its face hidden save for eyes that burned twin voids. **"Surrender the Shard of Eternity,"** it hissed, **"or feed the Hunger."**
The transmission died.
Z-9 whirred, projecting a star map. A single planet pulsed red: **Astra Prime**, a dead world at the edge of known space. The shard's light brightened, as if answering a call.
Kael exhaled. He'd sworn he'd never go back. Not after the Incident on Kessel. Not after… *her*. But the shard's warmth seeped into his bones, stirring something he'd buried long ago. A memory. A face. A name: **Veyra**.
His sister. The last Starbinder.
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**Astra Prime | The Ghost City**
The ruins stretched for miles, skeletal towers clawing at a blood-red sky. Kael trudged through the ash, Z-9 rolling behind him. The shard hung from his neck now, its glow his only guide.
"This is a *terrible* idea," the droid beeped.
"Noted," Kael said.
He halted. Ahead, a figure stood silhouetted against the horizon—a woman in tattered silver robes, her hair streaked with starlight. She turned, and Kael's breath caught.
"You're late, brother," Veyra said, her voice edged with grief. "The Maw has already awakened."
Behind her, the ground trembled. A black spire erupted from the earth, its surface writhing with half-formed faces, screaming silently. The cult's altar.
And the shard in Kael's hand began to *sing*.
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**TO BE CONTINUED…**
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**What's next?**
- A duel between Kael and a Void Maw acolyte?
- Flashbacks to Kael's past as a Starbinder initiate?
- The secret of the Shard of Eternity?